Jacob-Desmalter was the largest and most fashionable supplier of furniture in Paris from about 1800 to 1820. The firm certainly made this stool, and its pair, although neither bears their stamped mark. A hand-written paper label inside one of the long seat rails is inscribed with the name of the client, Marshal Ney, and the name of the room for which it was provided, the Petit Salon. Jacob-Desmalter is the only maker known to have used this form of labelling. The seat rails of the stool have been replaced at some time and it is likely that the firm's stamped mark was lost at that time. Marshal Ney (1769–1815) was a celebrated military hero in the Napoleonic army. After Napoleon was crowned as emperor in 1804, he was keen to establish his marshals as part of his imperial court. He arranged suitable marriages for several of them. Ney's wife, whose mother had been one of Queen Marie Antoinette's ladies-in-waiting before the French Revolution of 1789, was particularly successful in helping her husband to consolidate his position. In March 1805 they acquired a grand Paris house, the Hôtel de Saisseval, and immediately began to decorate and furnish it, using the firm of Jacob-Desmalter. The Petit Salon was one of the more simply decorated rooms in the house, with seat furniture in mahogany. This was in contrast to the giltwood used in the Salon Vert and other, grander rooms.